This is a hard book to get on with. Maybe Rabbit is a metaphor for a period of American history where maybe the country felt after the success of the Second World War that it was now a loser.
Rabbit is a selfish character that is driven not just by a yearning for a repeat of the success and adoration he had on the basketball court but also by a primitive sexual urge. Having returned to his wife believing on the way that the preacher’s wife is also after him he leaves her at a critical stage.
Having encouraged her to get drunk so he can have sex with her she goes on a bender that results in the tragic death of their newborn baby daughter. The bath-drowning scene is written with pace and through the perception of a drunken woman in a world of pain that is also something rather selfish.
With Rabbit now handed the reason to leave Janice and partly to blame because of his absence will he again try to run? Problem is that he can’t run away from himself and his own immaturity.
More tomorrow…
